Accessory Dwelling Units
ADU Builders in Central Florida
An accessory dwelling unit is a second, self-contained home on your property — its own entrance, its own bathroom and kitchen, often its own HVAC, electrical and plumbing. Homeowners across Central Florida build them to house family, to earn rental income, or both. Casa Mia Services builds them as a licensed Certified Building Contractor (CBC1255916), which means we handle the structural work, the permitting and the inspections, not just the finishes. The first question is always whether your parcel allows one — and that answer is different in Orlando than it is in Winter Park. We find out for you before you spend anything.
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Does Florida allow ADUs?
There is no statewide right to build an ADU in Florida. A bill that would have created one — Senate Bill 48 — passed the Florida Senate 38–0 in February 2026 but died in the House on 13 March 2026. The housing bill that did become law that session (HB 1389, Chapter 2026-179, effective 1 July 2026) deals with affordable housing development and contains no ADU provisions.
What that means in practice: whether you can build an ADU, how big it can be, and whether you can rent it out are decided mainly by the city or county ordinance that governs your specific parcel. Those rules vary a great deal across Central Florida — sometimes between two addresses a few miles apart. Confirming them for your property is the first thing we do.
What the rules look like where we build
A few examples of how different this gets:
What a Casa Mia ADU includes
A finished Central Florida ADU
Our Pinerock project in Orlando is a fully independent studio with its own bathroom, built so the homeowner could rent it out and help offset their mortgage. It's a detached structure — CMU block with a shed roof — running entirely on its own HVAC, electrical and plumbing, with a dedicated electrical sub-panel for straightforward service, and its own sewage pump tied into the main home's system. That's what a properly built ADU looks like: not a converted shed, a permitted second home.
Where we work
Remodeling, additions and construction across Central Florida.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to what homeowners ask us most.
Still have questions? Get a free estimateFlorida has no statewide law requiring cities to allow accessory dwelling units. A bill that would have created one, Senate Bill 48, passed the Florida Senate in February 2026 but died in March 2026 without becoming law. ADUs are permitted — or not — by the city or county ordinance covering your specific parcel, which is the first thing we check for you.
Yes — the City of Orlando permits accessory dwelling units in all of its residential districts, along with its mixed residential-office and office districts. Size is capped at 500 or 1,000 square feet depending on your lot and district, the unit must sit to the side or rear of the main house, and anything over 500 square feet needs one additional parking space. We built our Pinerock ADU under these rules.
Whether you can rent an accessory dwelling unit depends largely on your local ordinance, and it's the rule that catches homeowners out most often. Orlando restricts short-term rentals of under 30 days, while Winter Park's code does not allow accessory living quarters to be rented as an independent unit at all. If rental income is the reason you're building, tell us at the first conversation — it changes what we should design.
ADU size limits are set locally, not by the state. In the City of Orlando the cap is 500 or 1,000 square feet depending on your lot size and zoning district. Other cities in Central Florida set their own limits, and some restrict the unit to a percentage of the main house. We confirm the figure that applies to your address before design begins, so nothing has to be redrawn later.
An ADU is permitted construction, so it needs a licensed contractor to pull the permit and carry the work — this is not handyman territory. Casa Mia Services holds Florida Certified Building Contractor license CBC1255916, which covers the structural, electrical, plumbing and mechanical scope an independent dwelling unit involves. We manage the permit application, the inspections and the final sign-off as part of the build.
Casa Mia builds accessory dwelling units across Central Florida, including Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, Casselberry, Apopka, Oviedo, Sanford, Lake Mary, Altamonte Springs, Winter Springs, Longwood and Windermere. Because the rules change from one city to the next, we start by confirming what your parcel allows — then design to it.
